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Patrick Mays, VP and General Manager Graphisoft US, talks to Architosh about the START Edition — Making BIM Accessible to 2D Practitioners

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A few weeks ago I spoke to Patrick Mays, VP at Graphisoft US, regarding theArchiCAD START Edition 2008. He noted that a “start edition” is new to the US market but had been in existence in European and other markets for several years. “The START Edition 2008 version of ArchiCAD in the US is meant to repeat our success in Europe,” said Mays.

When asked about who the START Edition is addressing in the US market. Mays remarked that it has a wide target, from the sole practitioner who has never done 3D architectural CAD before to the builder who doesn’t need all the functionality of the full version of ArchiCAD 11. Noting that Autodesk is pushing Revit really hard at existing AutoCAD users I asked Patrick Mays if delivering the ArchiCAD START Edition at this time in the US, at a price roughly half that of a new AutoCAD/Revit bundle, was an attempt to steal some market share.

“With the START Edition Graphisoft is addressing the 2D CAD user in the US market in general,” remarked Mays. “We feel ArchiCAD 11 is the industry’s best BIM application and ArchiCAD START Edition 2008 delivers amazing capabilities at a very approachable price. It has most of the innovative features of ArchiCAD 11 but is not focused on the support for larger teams.”

In follow-up conversations with Graphisoft in Hungary, Architosh has been able to confirm that ArchiCAD START Edition 2008 works with all the same plugins that support ArchiCAD 11, excepting those whose features are tailored around functions in ArchiCAD 11 which are not supported in the START Edition.